On January 14th the chair of the board of Scouting Ireland (Gasóga na hÉireann / Scouting Ireland CLG) wrote to all registered adults in all of its member Scout Groups to notify them that The Charities Regulator is appointing inspectors to investigate the affairs of the company and a number of other organisations that may be related to it. The text of that email can be read here.
On the same day the Charities Regulator posted Public Notice of that review, text and link here.
The Currency ran a short article on the 14th, drawing the publics attention to the matter, text here.
In its Public Notice the Charities Regulator state that they “had been engaging with” the company “since 2023 arising from concerns that were raised with the regulator regarding governance matters”, and that they had now “decided to use its powers to undertake a statutory investigation to clarify matters”.
On January 15th, the Currency ran a follow-up article (text here) and the Irish Times also reported on the matter (text here).
That the Charities Regulator felt the need to undertake this investigation undoubtedly raises concerns for many in Scouting in Ireland and its key stakeholders. It is to be hoped that the investigation will be both thorough and expedient so as to bring clarity to the current unsatisfactory situation and to enable any underlying issues to be identified and addressed.
On January 18th, the Currency ran a further article with some information on the entities (associations and companies) covered in the Charity Regulator’s investigaion, text here.
A further article in the Irish Times on January 21st draws attention to a director at Scouting Ireland who is also a director at the Charities Regulator, text here. That evening of the board of Scouting Ireland wrote to registered adults announcing the departure of two directors and the co-option of two others, text here. And this was quickly followed by an article in the Currency, text here.
On the morning of January 22nd, the Irish Times revealed that a minister had, the previous day, written to the person who held dual directorships insisting on their immediate resignation from the board of the Charities Regulator and that this resignation was then offerred, text here. On March 8th, the Irish Times published a followon articles based on information obtained via a Freedom of Information request, text here. On March 10th The Journal also ran an article on this, text here.
Previous posting on this site which may be of interest
Board of Directors – Feb 13th 2024
Castle Saunderson – Jan 17th 2024
